Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

White Line Fever Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 14, 2020

Jonathan Kaplan's "White Line Fever" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment. There are no supplemental features on this release. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Please note that the text below was initially used in our review of Explosive Media's release of White Line Fever.

In the bonus section of this recent release of Jonathan Kaplan’s film White Line Fever there is an exclusive documentary that was produced by Eric Mache, Ulrich Bruckner and Ally Lamaj. A rather large segment of it is dedicated to a very interesting interview with Ken Friedman, who teaches film at New York University. I would like to highlight a few things that Mr. Friedman mentions in the interview because I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Back in the early ‘60s when Friedman was a lot younger, he came to NYU with the clear understanding that if a film wasn’t made in Europe, or perhaps England, it was trash. At the time, he was in love with the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, and all the other big continental filmmakers that were praised by the critics, and he viewed their work as cinematic art. Naturally, not only he disliked all American films, but he considered them the very definition of the trash that he had been avoiding. (This is the exact term that Friedman uses multiple times in the interview). Then one day he enrolled in a class that Marty Scorsese was teaching and he turned his world upside down. Each week, Friedman was introduced to a classic American film that gradually made him realize that the things he loved seeing in the work of Truffaut and Godard, for instance, were actually done a lot earlier by Howard Hawks and John Ford, even Fritz Lang. So, it dawned on him that the Europeans, whose work he admired so much, were actually ‘borrowing’ a lot from a generation of American directors whose films he was completely unfamiliar with. At the time, Friedman and Kaplan were classmates, and it was during this illuminating period that the idea for White Line Fever emerged.

After spending a couple of years in the Air Force, Carrol Jo Hummer (Jan-Michael Vincent) returns home to Arizona and promptly marries his girl, Jerri (Kay Lenz). The two then use all of their savings to put a down payment on a Blue Mule so that CJ can begin working as an independent trucker. Shortly after, one of his father’s old business partners, Duane Huller (Slim Pickens), offers him a good-paying gig, but with slightly responsibilities -- in addition to transporting fruits and vegetables, CJ would have to do regular ‘favors’ for local hotshot Buck Wessle (the great L.Q. Jones), who deals with stolen slot machines and cigarettes. Even though he needs the money to start paying the bank that gave him the loan for the truck, CJ rejects Duane’s offer, which turns out to be a foolish move because it instantly earns him a ‘message’ from Buck’s boys that leaves him with a few broken ribs. But instead of reconsidering and accepting Duane’s offer, CJ vows to find a proper job and begins offering his services to other contractors in the area. However, he soon realizes that the same people that control Duane are also running the state’s entire trucking business. When he decides to expose them, all hell breaks loose.

According to Kaplan, White Line Fever materialized because of the success of his previous film, Truck Turner, which he made for AIP. A big boss at Columbia had read an article in Variety about the impressive box-office numbers it made in Detroit and Chicago and assumed that White Line Fever would be a similar project, not realizing of course that there were no trucks in Truck Turner. So, the boss did what needed to be done, Columbia cut a check for White Line Fever, and Kaplan went to work.

The film is essentially a contemporary western in which Vincent’s character faces a bunch of baddies, but instead of riding a horse, he drives a big truck. Rather predictably, all of the conflicts that emerge after he goes on the warpath are also constructed in a way that reminds of the classic westerns that the likes of John Sturges and Sam Peckinpah did. In fact, when Kaplan and Friedman were finalizing the script, they agreed that it would be a terrific idea if the film had the attitude of a Peckinpah project, which is why they brought on board old pros like Pickens, Jones, Dick Miller, and R.G. Armstrong.

The film oozes terrific energy and the action is very realistic. There is also a whiff of that light but very attractive cynicism that now makes so many of the action films that emerged during the late’60s and ‘70s look quite refreshing.

White Line Fever Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, White Line Fever arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment.

I expected this release to look either identical or superior to the one that Swiss label Explosive Media produced a couple of years ago. (You can see our listing and review of the other release here). Well, it is pretty obvious that both are sourced from the same old master, which comes from Sony's vaults, but they do not look identical. And no, I am not referring to the framing discrepancy, which is completely meaningless.

On this release there are small bits of the film that look noticeably sharper, and not in a natural way, plus these same bits also tend to have slightly elevated contrast levels. The problem is, I don't think that any recent work has been done to introduce such adjustments. I expected the entire film to look more or less like what you see in screencapture #1, but then the shifts occur and there is quite a bit of what you see in screencapture #16. On a larger screen, the discrepancy can become quite obvious, especially when there is plenty of natural light. The Swiss release that is referenced above looks marginally softer, but also lacks the contrasty edge, which is why on it the film looks more natural. Oddly enough, the Swiss release is not encoded better -- its gamma levels for instance are not set properly -- and yet it still treats the film better.

So, if you are trying to make a purchasing decision keep in mind the following: First, both releases offer presentations of the film that can be improved, and I assume that eventually Sony will upgrade its current master. Second, Mill Creek's release is better encoded, but the overall presentation of the film on it appears slightly inferior. The Swiss release is softer but with a marginally better organic qualities. Naturally, if you view your films on a larger screen or project, the smarter decision would be to go with the Swiss release because it offers an all-around more convincing organic presentation of the film.

White Line Fever Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There are no technical issues to report, which is entirely predictable because the lossless audio has the exact same characteristics that we addressed in our review of Explosive Media's release of White Line Fever. If Sony prepares a brand new master, it is possible that some extremely small dynamic and balance adjustments are introduced, but at best I think that they would be 'cosmetic' improvements.

White Line Fever Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no bonus features to be found on this release.

White Line Fever Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is unlikely that Michael Cimino was in any way inspired by White Line Fever when he started developing Year of the Dragon, but these two films are more or less the same -- they are contemporary westerns and their main protagonists are on pretty much identical missions. However, Jonathan Kaplan gives his film an American 'kitchen-sink' vibe that basically makes it look a lot more casual. It is a very fine film with some terrific performances by Jan-Michael Vincent and old pros like L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, and R.G. Armstrong.

Mill Creek Entertainment's release is sourced from the same older master that Sony supplied to Swiss label Explosive Media for its local release of White Line Fever, but I was surprised to discover that these releases offer different technical presentations. While the Swiss release has issues, I like how the film looks on it better, plus it has a few really good bonus features. So, for the time being, I think that it is the better option.